The Darkness are to reform, though without Justin Hawkins, and without the name The Darkness, if that makes sense. Following much speculation last year that the band would continue post-Justin with bassist Richie Edwards on vocals, news this week that the band will continue with bassist Richie Edwards on vocals. Except the band won't perform under the name The Darkness anymore, though I don't think it's been confirmed what the new name will be.
But it has been confirmed that the band are back in the studio working on new material, with Edwards as frontman and new bassist and former Graham Coxon collaborator Toby MacFarlaine on, erm, bass. We know this because Edwards wrote all this on his MySpace page...
"It's finally happened, the 'big red record button' has been pressed and we've officially started our album. Dan and Nick have achieved a monstrous drum sound and, in true great producer style, are guiding parts and arrangements to make songs as good as they can be. Ed is officially on fire!!, he's playing like never before and is somehow managing to play with real groove whilst hitting his drums so hard that the whole studio is shaking. Toby and myself are throwing down riffs that are so fat they can barely fit through the speakers and we think Dan's cat is preggers!! I f*@cking love this band!!!!!!!!"
PS: We corrected a couple of spelling mistakes there, but the self-censoring of 'fucking' and somewhat excessive use of exclamation marks are all Richie's.